Bury Me With Your Own Hands
by Rie Sonomura
Summary: Guess it's the end of the road for this Octoling. [Vent fic. Sanitized Marina, hinted Pearlina, may not be lore accurate, TRIGGER WARNINGS: mention of suicide/attempted suicide and character death. sorry to start 2020 on a depressing note but i needed to let this out of my system.]


**hey. so... i had hopes for 2020 to start well, and... it didn't. the night of new year's eve 2019 was just... the WORST way to kick off a new decade. i guess... i'm writing tragedy as a way of venting. and that this may be controversial but fuck it, controversial is what i do for a goddamn living.**

**Content warnings: Sanitized!Marina. Hinted Pearlina. Discussion of suicide. MARINA WILL DIE, WARNING Y'ALL RIGHT NOW. This is a loss/grieving based fic. and no, nobody close to me died irl... except a part of myself, that night. also, some of this may seem unpolished as I'm just writing this to vent and get it out of my system for now.  
**

**Also, some lore may not be fully accurate and I'm using headcanons and fill in the blanks at parts, esp with Callie knowing martial arts and the whole Dedf1sh thing so bear with me.**

**so... sorry im starting 2020 on a sad note...**

* * *

**_Bury Me With Your Own Hands_**

"Marina?!"

Pearl couldn't believe what she saw. After searching for almost a day and a half with Callie, Marie, and Cap'n Cuttlefish, she finally found Marina.

But... something was wrong. _Horribly _wrong.

"Marina... why...?"

Gone was Marina's healthy dark complexion, brown eyes, and brown tentacle-based hair which faded into a soft turquoise. Her eyes were now a haunting neon green amidst a black sclera. Her skin was now a sickly pale green, her hair now that ominous dark blue fading into that disgusting neon green - that same one she saw when helping Agent 8 escape the Deepsea Metro when they had to face those Octarians.

_Sanitized _Octarians.

Marina... was Sanitized.

It would certainly explain why Marina attacked the group earlier, with Callie rushing in to try to defend them. Callie knew martial arts, she had managed to takedown and body slam Agent 4 while she was under the effects of DJ Octavio's Hypnoshades, when Agent 4 tried to jump to the Octo Bot and remove Callie's shades manually. Even after that, Callie never forgot those skills.

Marina tried to attack Pearl, but upon hearing Pearl's voice, she stopped. She just fell to her knees, a mixture of sorrow and apathy apparent on her face - like she was dead inside.

"Pearl..." Marina murmured. Her voice was not the same as Pearl remembered it. There was that disturbing vibrato to it - the kind the Sanitized Octolings had. "I... I'm sorry..."

"W... what are ya apologizing for, Marina?" Pearl chuckled nervously, trying to hide her shock and dismay... dismay because she knew deep down this wouldn't end well. And the shock... was because Pearl was confused. _Why _did Marina get Sanitized? Commander Tartar was gone. Agent 8 detonated all the Hyperbombs on the NILS Statue, and Pearl finished it off with her Princess Cannon. She _saw _Tartar dissolving in her ink.

How, and why? And _who_ did this to her Marina?

"Look, Marina, i-it's okay," Pearl stammered, slowly approaching the Octoling she cared so deeply about. "We... can go home..." She reached out a hand to touch Marina's shoulder, when...

"DON'T TOUCH ME!"

But it was too late. The minute Pearl touched Marina's sickly pale green skin, her hand started to burn. It was like the pain of falling into water and dissolving. Pearl knew that pain and lived, if only for the fact it was all during turf wars and there were Spawn Points. Here, this was not the case. She quickly pulled her hand away, took out her Splattershot to splat some ground nearby, and dipped the hand into the ink, letting it regenerate. Once she was healed, she slowly turned to Marina, unable to hide her breaking heart.

"I... can't go home. Not like this..." Marina sadly shook her head. "This body of mine... won't let you hug me anymore... And nobody at Inkopolis will look at me the same way... they'll be scared, disgusted. Off The Hook will never be the same..."

"But..." Pearl tried to bargain, "Remember our promise after I won the Final Fest? That you and me..." She could feel her eyes well up with tears. Inkling and Octoling tears weren't water-based like humans' were, probably due to the former two races' innate intolerance. Their tears were clear and gooey, with a slight tint of their ink hue. "We'd... rock the mic until the end of time?"

"Trust me, Pearlie, there's nothing I wanted more than that." Closing her eyes, Marina began to recount her experiences. "I... don't know what happened. I was heading home that night... I'm sure you noticed when I didn't return. I don't know what hit me, or who. When I came to, I... immediately recognized the type of tank I was sealed into..."

"Mari..." Pearl looked down sadly. She couldn't begin to imagine the hell Marina was put through.

"All I know is, as the liquid changed me into... this, all I could think about was you... all the memories we shared. And... you know how in many cases, being Sanitized robs people of their core memories? Well... I remembered. I remembered... _everything._" Shivering, she continued, "And... I couldn't take it. I couldn't take living a life in this form. So I tried to... go for a swim."

"You didn't...!"

"And yet... I just couldn't die. Even without a Spawn Point, I kept reforming for some reason. And it wouldn't stop. All that pain... for nothing." Glancing at the Squid Sisters, she commented, "At least... I'm glad Callie and Marie found each other again, that nothing too terrible happened. But... guess it's the end of the road for this Octoling." At Marina's words, Callie and Marie silently, sorrowfully huddled together, not wanting to think how it could have been worse for them.

"Don't say that!" Pearl protested. "We can try to save you-"

"NO, YOU CAN'T!"

Pearl only faintly gasped and trembled.

"...Agent 8 saved Agent 3 from the partial Sanitization by shooting that blob on their face. But once you're fully Sanitized... there's no going back. You couldn't save Dedf1sh. You guys tried, but you couldn't find a way that worked without risking killing her, and after that, she disappeared." Slowly standing, Marina regretfully continued, "And...maybe it's best I disappear too. For real."

"What are you...?!"

Slowly opening her eyes, Marina uttered as slightly teal-tinged gooey tears dripped down her face, "Pearlie... Please... Kill me."

"WHAT?!"

"I... am already dead, Pearlie. I no longer have a heartbeat. The person you knew as Marina Ida... died that day, in that tank. I'm... dead inside." Closing her eyes again, she wept with a bitter, wistful smile, "I was hoping I'd attack you fast enough for you to pull out your Splattershot and splat me without a second thought, not even knowing it was me... but you could tell, couldn't you? Even I... couldn't bring myself to hurt you."

"No...!" Pearl sobbed, wiping her eyes with her right arm. "I don't want it to end like this...!"

"Only by your hands will I be free, Pearlie. This is for the best... I'm already dead, now I need to be buried." Her expression turned sorrowful as she lamented, "I want you to know, Pearlie, that... these short two years I've gotten to know you, all the times we shared as Off The Hook... those were the best years of all my 18 years of life. I wouldn't trade that for anything."

"Marina... please... if I could turn back time I'd prevent this from happening...! I should have walked us both home that night...!"

"And I'm sorry, Pearlie... What's done is done. If you would... I want you to do the honors with your Princess Cannon." Wiping away her tears, she said, "I want to hear your 'Boo-YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!' one last time..."

"Marina..." Cap'n Cuttlefish spoke up. "Are you... sure about this...?"

Marina only nodded and told him, "Please, I want you... and Callie and Marie, too... to take care of Pearlie for me. Help her cope with this... and reassure her it wasn't her fault."

Marie only solemnly nodded while Callie looked down, the tragedy about to unfold too much for her to bear. She realized she should count her blessings that Marie and Agent 4 saved her from DJ Octavio's brainwashing... that she didn't end up like Marina.

"I... I'll always... remember the times we shared too...!" Pearl sobbed before her hair started glowing a bioluminescent pink and she pulled the Princess Cannon out of seemingly thin air. Glacing at the Squid Sisters and their grandfather momentarily, she advised them, "S-stand back, guys." The three silently obliged.

"Pearlie... before I go..." Marina began, forcing a smile through her tears, "I want to re-emphasize something. Please... don't blame yourself. It's better it be me than you. You were the only important person in my life, but you... you're important to so many other people, like your family, and compared to that I'm nothing. I have no family... no other friends..."

"I'll...try..." The tears couldn't stop gushing down Pearl's face. "Goodbye, Marina... I'll miss you..."

"Thank you for everything, Pearlie. Goodbye...and I'm sorry." Marina closed her eyes which overflowed with tears one last time and stretched her arms out, as if awaiting and embracing the release from the mortal coil only Pearl could give.

She heard the Princess Cannon revving up, followed by a very grief-filled "Boo-YAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" and a great light that swallowed her whole.

...

_**Marina **is no more..._

...

"Uhhh..." Pearl groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. She found herself lying on the ground as Callie, Marie and Cap'n Cuttlefish loomed over her with concerned looks. She couldn't tell at first though, as her vision was a bit blurry and her ears were still ringing.

_What...? What just happened? Was that... a dream? My head feels fuzzy..._

All of a sudden, _her _face flashed into Pearl's mind.

"MARINA!" She quickly bolted up and frantically looked around.

_If that wasn't a dream... there's... gotta be some way she's ok right? And not..._

Unfortunately, her hopes were dashed within seconds.

Right there... were what was left of Marina Ida: her clothing and headphones, all stained pink with Pearl's ink. She quickly ran to them, cradling them like she would Marina's adorable little octopus form. She was somewhat expecting a small, cute brown octopus with green-tinted tentacles to hop up to her any second now.

But it never happened.

It was then that the painful reality sank in - Marina was... finally free. She was gone forever.

Holding what was left of Marina tightly, Pearl burst into anguished sobs as Callie, Marie, and their grandfather walked over to the distraught Inkling, the last surviving member of Off The Hook, and compassionately hugged her, with Callie trying not to cry.

Pearl returned the hug, weeping before lifting her head to the sky and wailing out the name of the one she loved... the one who left a hole in her heart with her death.

"MARIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...!"

_**Fin**_

* * *

**at least I got this out of my system. this is probably the last time i'll ever write anything like this, but i feel it was worth it. i hope the rest of the year...of the decade... is good for me, at least. better than last night...**


End file.
